Queen Comms, “_____ ________,” and Snapchat
The authority on mixternal comms
👋 Hello to the dozens of subscribers who signed up this week from Amsterdam to Vancouver and myriad places between. I’m glad you’re here 😊.
👑 What to Say?
Employees in the U.K. and Commonwealth countries may be upset about the passing of Queen Elizabeth.
Personally, I don't have anything to offer on the topic.
But one person’s news item is another’s tragedy.
For internal comms pros who weren’t prepared for this moment, there are some tips in my post about the invasion of Ukraine that you can apply to communicate about the sad news. (Vastly different tragedies; universal concepts.)
For example: Check your tone. If you have messages scheduled to go out today and during national mourning—rethink them. Double-check the wording so that it doesn’t sound tone-deaf. Rewrite the top if you have to. Reschedule the message for another week if you can.
Are your leaders struggling with whether to say anything at all? And if so, why and over which channel?
In just one week the article When Should We Say Something About Social Issues? A Way Forward. has become the third-most-popular Mister Editorial article ever.
The “way forward” in the title hints at the evidence I provide to help you convince leaders they don’t need to say something about everything all the time.
But if something must be said, there’s a framework 👇.
Queen Elizabeth was 96 years old. Her death isn’t exactly a shocker. A prepared comms-rade would have been able to very quickly act on the news.
Being prepared is the best way to break the insufferable cycle of always being in reactive mode.
When disaster strikes, getting something out the door within hours of the event is a welcome relief for:
a) leadership who is wondering what should be said and how soon it can be distributed
b) anxious employees who are wondering whether the company is going to say something, and
c) Comms pros whose day/week was just derailed by the event and want to get back to what they were working on
✨ Reminder: Mister Editorial’s paid subscribers get access to real-life executive memos that address hot-button issues, as well as helpful analysis of what did/not work, such as Disney’s response to Florida’s “don’t say ‘gay’ bill,” in case you need inspiration.
“_____ ________”
🙄 I’m not even gonna say “_____ ________,” the latest business news fad for what many of our internal comms-rades have rightly identified as “disengagement,” a phenomenon we’ve been dealing with since…forever.
When I last wrote about this topic, Gallup reported that 15% of employees were actively disengaged. Today that number is 18%.
One way to increase engagement is through “value storytelling.”
Value storytelling runs on two complementary tracks:
D&I storytelling means engaging employee populations that are generally underrepresented in society and in the workplace.
Storytelling around corporate values means talking about what the company stands for, as examples from Apple and Spotify illustrate.
But…but… value storytelling can’t be done willy nilly. You need an editorial strategy to have an effect on business outcomes. Proceed in this order:
💗 Love Your Work?
In the ebook Job Love, author Andrea Greenhous (Vision2Voice) explores ways employees and organizations can create healthy relationships. The 41-pager is full of practical steps you can take to fall in love with the work you do.
Job Love has seven chapters that present a premise and how internal comms supports the concept:
Understanding
Trust
Respect
Fulfillment
Loyalty
Cooperation
Passion
Ideas From Fellow Comms-rades
Julia Levy interviews Phillip Hales, senior director of internal comms at Stash (The Switchboard)
Mike Klein of #WeLeadComms fame pens “Do Cultural Say-Do Gaps Amount to a ‘War on Talent’?” (Strategic)
My teammate Kate Seegraves explains why employees are essential to your storytelling strategy (PR Daily)
Hiring
Avison Young - Global Internal Comms Coordinator (Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta)
Lethbridge College - Communications Specialist (Alberta, Canada)
United Nations Global Compact - Sr. Manager, Communications and Content (New York, hybrid)
Oh, Snap!
In June, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel sent a memo to his ~5,660 employees letting them know that the company will cut spending due to “macro” economic circumstances, including slowing down hiring.
Despite the bad news it was a well-written memo. Read it and my analysis here.
Almost three months later the other shoe has dropped.
Last week Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, announced it would lay off 20% of its workforce, which is more than 1,000 employees. Spiegel sent a memo to all employees explaining the cuts.
Read the memo and my analysis.
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Disclaimer: Besides running Mister Editorial, I am the editor-in-chief of Digital Publications at Lam Research. The views in this newsletter are my own.